Old favorites…{Day 35}

Sunrise and Honeysuckle

Do you find yourself returning to old favorites and habits in times of stress and upheaval? Sometimes, for me, this isn’t a good thing, because I have to work very hard to make good choices in a few areas where I’m prone to excess. However, books, music, and nature or domestic detail photography all have their place in a kind of “on-the-spot therapy” for me. I am definitely a rereader especially if a book encapsulates a certain ‘feeling’ I’m after or setting I love.

Poetry that I return to again and again!

Wild, windy days and whipping yellow

I recently pulled off my shelf a favorite reread series that’s so interesting that I got immediately sucked in all over again. I was reminded how much I love rereading, because so much more can be caught and different things highlighted. The Mirror Visitor Series isn’t perfect, but it has so many interesting characters and so many ideas to think on, I just love it. I was again reminded that it’s not always good for me to rush reading or be trying to keep up with all the new stuff. One big downside to Bookstagram and Booktube. Poetry, too, is something I absolutely have favorites of, I’m so rewarded and surprised as I cracked open the pages and take a deep drink all over again.

I don’t own a PB copy of the last book, The Storm of Echoes yet, can’t wait to collect it for the gorgeous cover alone. My favorites are the first two, by far, but they are all so immersive.
Josh Garrels oldie, but goodie

I’m very eclectic in my reading, listening, and watching tastes. I like quirky, kind of off-the-beaten-track things with a side of classic. I’ve noticed a shift lately back to my old Josh Garrels listening, instrumental BTS (my one and ever only K-pop fandom), a craving for films like Sound of Music, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Babette’s Feast. I watched a few episodes of Over the Garden Wall with my kids the other day. It’s a bit toooo creepy for us, but some of it is interesting and has such a gorgeous atmosphere. How about you? What do you gravitate towards when life is feeling weighty?

Two reread favorites 🥹♥️

Tree gazing and listening to…what are they whispering?

Hello light, my old friend.

How ‘bout you? What are some healthy ways you refresh yourself? Do you need something new and different? Or do you return to your comfortable, hole-y sweater of inspiration? It goes without saying, that the Holy Bible is super comforting to me because it shows that there is nothing new under the sun. We are all so flawed. I need deep gulps of Jesus.♥️ I definitely occasionally need a ‘Tookish’ adventure to get me out of a funk, but generally, returning to my old Baggins favorites and home comforts blesses me immensely. What richness we’ve been given! ☺️♥️🕸️🕷️🌿🍂🍁🍄🌾

~I remember the days of old;

I mediate on all you have done;

I reflect on the work of your hands.

I spread out my hands to you;

I am like parched land before you.

Selah

Psalm 143: 5-6 CSB

A Mom’s Commonplace {Day 28}

Is there anything more cozy then journaling and journals? 😄♥️ It’s no secret that I’m a journal fanatic! We are trying something different this year in our home learning of combining our multiple journals into one. I’ve had the opportunity to journal alongside my children and it has been such an enriching experience. I don’t often share my children’s work, as that’s their own, but don’t mind sharing what I’ve been recording myself. 😆 So much richness! 😍I’m learning every day right along with my children. I have music lyrics, quotes, drawings, etc in here already! I treasure it. Do you journal?

What you learning or diving deep into? Isn’t life grand? 😄♥️🙌🌿🍄🌻

Wednesday Wonders {Day 27}

ListeningGreat Pumpkin and Harry Potter Ambient Music. I’m also enjoying Nicholas Nickleby audiobook while I follow along in the book.

Reading…I’ve begun a lot of my Victorian TBR, Dickens, Gaskell, and Yonge. but I’ve been enjoying light, cozy stories inbetween. Kiki’s Delivery Service, Thimble Summer, and The Language of Spells.

Watching…I’m back to watching YouTube/or going on Instagram only on Saturdays. It really helps my focus and sanity during the week. A new favorite YouTuber that I can’t wait to watch more of is CleoPatrick.

Noticing…the main thing I’ve noticed lately is that our Barn Swallows are gone. 🥲♥️ We’ve been seeing a few butterflies still and our temperatures are fluctuating a lot. My son saw a “V” of geese on Sunday. We’ve been trying to get outdoors more because we know the cold, snowy is coming.

How about you? What have you been reading, listening to, watching, or noticing? 🍁♥️

Saturday Examen + Homeschool Snapshots week 2 {Day 22}

Prayer for the coming week…

“The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me, his word was on my tongue.”

King David, from 2 Samuel 23:2

Hello, Friends! ♥️☕️🌻I realize I’ve been a bit scarce as we dive into our new home educating year, I hope to get back to my 180 Day Project soon. Here’s a few shots from our week…

How was your week? Ours was good, albeit looong! 😁♥️☕️🌻🌿

Saturday Examen + Homeschool Snapshots ~ first week {Day 20}

Cat fluff + sunshine = happiness 😄♥️🐈✨

“No one ever cared for me like Jesus
His faithful hand has held me all this way
And when I’m old and grey
And all my days
Are numbered on the earth
Let it be known in You alone
My joy was found”

~Stephanie Gretzinger

Song that has been carrying me through this week. 🥹♥️✨

We had a great start to our homeschool year this week. I changed our multiple journals that we’ve used in the past to one (plus a group one) for each of us and that is going very well! We so far are enjoying our books…the clear favorites of the week are our continuing a summer read of Jane of Lantern Hill by LM Montgomery, By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Around the World in 80 Days audiobook by Jules Verne. I attached some things to meal/tea time and it’s working well. I so enjoy reading public library picks with my youngers in spare moments. I’ve worked out a rhythm for working through individual work my youngest to oldest and it’s working wonderfully. We still have some wrinkles to iron out as my 12th grader 😭♥️ is working two days a week this year and we haven’t hit the co ops we are in yet. They start next week! Overall, I’m pleased with the forward motion. How was your week? Bless you as you put your hand to YOUR plow! ♥️✨🌻📚🥰☕️💌🖤

•supply• {Day 19}

Let the child himself do that which the teacher usually does for him. Let the child by narration supply both question and answer.

from Karen Glass, Know & Tell, quoting the P.N.E.U

Always learning… {Day 18}

Happy Back to School, friends! 🌻

I’m usually deep diving into some topic I’m currently interested in. As a stay-at-home-homeschooling-mom, it’s important for me to be learning, too! That’s what I love about Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education. All of us involved are learning to live, be curious, and prioritize relationships with God, people current and past, the natural world, and so much more. My current interest is communism and the different countries and people involved in it.

Bookstagram/Booktube have a month long focus called #RedSeptember, but I’m just going as my interest leads. I have one book on hold at the library related to North Korea (is North Korea really Communist? There’s some debate on that?). I read a lot this past year about Vietnam and a couple chapters on Laos. I’m currently reading The Faithful Spy by John Hendrix because my older children had liked it. Wow! 😮 it’s intense but I love the illustration style. I listened to a memoir called Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang and learned so much of the Chinese cultural revolution.

I also listened to Animal Farm by George Orwell which was fascinating and a bit unnerving about how quickly we believe propaganda. The character Boxer! 😭 Such a sobering story and fascinating way of explaining! I was able to chat a little with my older who has read it before.

I do have an interesting book I found on my public library shelves called Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20-Year Journey Through the Soviet Collapse by Lawrence Scott Sheets. It is the memoir of a journalist traveling through a few of the various countries that were part of the Soviet Union. So far it’s good!

I also have the historical fiction A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles sitting here and a children’s graphic novel called Escape from East Berlin. So plenty of options! Do you have any recommendations that would give me some knowledge on Cuba? Or any favorite books on communist history? What are you currently deep, dive studying? I have plenty more of interests, but this is my focus now! ♥️📚

…gratitudes for today…{Day 14}

Barn swallows are still here 🥹♥️
Healthy meals ♥️🌿
Summer read alouds winding down- so many lovely books! ♥️🥹✨
Penpal catching up 📝🖊️📚📭💌📨
New homeschooling goodies…a fresh Calendar of Firsts! Keeping track of things we see in nature each day together. 🕸️🕷️🦉🌲
Making my own sugar free iced coffee. Froze leftover coffee for my ice cubes so it isn’t watery! ☕️🧊
Trying new planner this year. I’ve used a Walmart one for 13? years so this may be too much ‘fire power’ 😅, but needed to shake everything up! Notice Jimin 😜on cover to inspire me to keep going! 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
Sneak peek 👀 of a few of my favorite summer reads! Many of these are rereads and actually I listened to a lot of these on audiobook this summer, but I’m ok with them being all-time-and-forever favorites! 📚♥️
Chicory 🥹🌿my late summer friend

How about you? What are some blessings shining out? ✨✨✨

Monday Ponderings {Day 13}

Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie for the family 🧡💛💚

Nothing is trivial that concerns a child; his foolish-seeming words and ways are pregnant with meaning for the wise. It is in the infinitely little we must study the infinitely great; and the vast possibilities, and the right direction of education, are indicated in the open book of the little child’s thoughts.

Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 5

One week here before we start back to formal {home} school! Praying 🙏🏻 and trusting. 🧡💛💚

On Home Life and Education 🌿 {Day 11}

One of the best things about narration is that it allows children to tell you what they know, rather than being a means of discovering what they do not. Children will make use of their knowledge according to their own needs, interests, and personalities. What each does with the knowledge thus digested will be unique.

~ Karen Glass, Know & Tell, p. 185

Glads at the public library! 😍

We do need more of God, much more. Little sips between long droughts will not sustain us. We need more of God in our bodies, our souls, our relationships, our work, everywhere in our lives. But when you live in a culture of the incessant upgrade of everything, the sensational, it gives the impression that if you’re going to have a deeper, richer, amazing experience of God, it’s going to have to come in some sensational way.

I have some wonderful news for you: Nope. Not even close.

Life is built on the dailies.

Consider love, friendship, and marriage. Love, friendship, and marriage are not built on skydiving together, trips to Paris, kayaking the Amazon. They’re not. Perhaps once in your life you might do something like that, but the fantastic is not your daily. Love, friendship, and marriage are nurtured in the context of simple things like coffee together, hanging out, getting a burrito, holding hands, taking a walk, doing the dishes, reading to one another, or just reading different things while you’re together in the same room. It’s the little things that build a beautiful life.

John Eldredge, Get Your Life Back, p. 59

Fun recent library book…

In order to bring this lifestyle of learning into your home, you must look for beauty and new ideas, listen to your children’s interests and desires, create memories, look for new habits to develop, and give yourself and your children the grace of time to savor your time at home. Become involved with your children. Look at their hearts. Let them look at yours. Give them your attention. Edith Stein encourages, “The children in school do not need merely what we have but rather what we are.” ( Essays on Woman, 6)

~ Elizabeth Foss, Real Learning Revisited, p.35

Wednesday Wonders

Listening… I really enjoyed Episode S6E85 Morning Time for Moms, Part 4, with Christina Baehr, here. I couldn’t figure out how to directly link. Christina is a cozy fantasy author and homeschooling mom who chatted with Cindy Rollins. Thanks to my friend, Kate, for telling me about it!

Reading… Know & Tell by Karen Glass. I was desperately in need of a refresher on all things Charlotte Mason as I plan our upcoming homeschool year. I’m entering my 15th year of homeschooling. I’m so thankful to God for His faithfulness. 😭♥️🌿

Watching… This YouTube channel about Charlotte Mason homeschooling.

Noticing… raindrops on hollyhock buds, endless blue skies, and the way the barn swallows swoop around me when I’m on the mower. Not to mention the smell of freshly cut grass! 🥰🥰🥰

How ‘bout you? What are you listening to, reading, watching, and noticing? ♥️🌿📚😍